Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • An Israeli soldier is wounded after an improvised explosive device detonated east of the demarcation line in Gaza. (The Jerusalem Post) (YNet)
• Terrorism in Russia
  • An explosive device kills two police officers and one civilian at , Moscow, Russia, near to where Russian lieutenant general Fanil Sarvarov was killed in a separate bombing two days prior. (BBC News)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • Israeli settler violence
    • Five masked Israeli settlers break into a Palestinian house in the southern West Bank, killing three sheep, injuring four others, and fire tear gas into the living quarters. Three children under the age of four are taken to hospital after the tear gas attack. (Los Angeles Times)
• Russo-Ukrainian war
  • Northern Donetsk Oblast campaign
    • The Ukrainian Armed Forces confirm their withdrawal from Siversk, Donetsk Oblast. (Reuters)
• War on drugs, Operation Southern Spear
  • 2025 United States military strikes on alleged drug traffickers
    • The United States Southern Command announces U.S. forces have struck an alleged drug trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing one person. (ABC News)
• Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
  • The Pakistani Taliban detonates a bomb and shoots at a police van in Karak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, killing five officers. (Reuters)
• Yemeni civil war
  • In an agreement mediated by the United Nations special envoy office and the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council and the Houthis release a joint 2,900 detainees held throughout the civil war. (AP)

• The Italian Competition Authority fines Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair €255 million (US$300 million) for allegedly abusing its dominant market position from April 2023 to April 2025 by restricting how travel agencies sell its flights. (Reuters)

• Harmony Jets Flight 185
  • A Dassault Falcon 50 jet carrying Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad, the Libyan Army chief, four other passengers and three crew crashes approximately two kilometers south of Kesikkavak, Haymana, Ankara, Turkey. No survivors are reported. (Al Jazeera) (AP)
• At least two people are killed and 20 others are injured in an explosion and fire at a nursing home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. (WPVI-TV) (Reuters)

• Montenegro–Turkey relations, Visa policy of Montenegro
  • Montenegro reinstates visa-free entry for Turkish citizens but shortens the permitted stay from 90 days to 30 days after resuming cooperation with Turkey. (Reuters)

• Corruption in Romania
  • Romanian president Nicușor Dan announces an investigation into alleged systemic abuses within the judiciary after judges and prosecutors report intimidation and undue influence by the High Court of Cassation and Justice. (Reuters)
• Piracy in Venezuela
  • The Venezuelan National Assembly approves a law that creates prison terms of up to 20 years for promoting or financing activities defined as piracy, blockades, or related international crimes. (Reuters)
• Zagreb school stabbing
  • A Croatian man is sentenced to 50 years in prison for fatally stabbing a 7-year-old student at a school in Zagreb in December 2024. (AP)

• 2026 Portuguese presidential election
  • A court in Lisbon, Portugal, orders Chega presidential candidate André Ventura to remove campaign posters targeting the Romani people within 24 hours, ruling that the materials are discriminatory and may incite hatred, or face daily fines of €2,500 (US$2,940) per poster. (Reuters)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Middle Eastern crisis
  • Israel–Hezbollah conflict
    • Three people are killed in an Israeli airstrike against a vehicle near Sidon, Lebanon. (Al Jazeera)
  • Syrian conflict
    • SDF–Syrian transitional government clashes (2025–present)
      • December 2025 Aleppo clashes
        • Two people are killed and eight others are injured during clashes between Syrian security forces and Syrian Democratic Forces fighters in Aleppo. (AP via WFMZ-TV)
• Russo-Ukrainian war
  • Attacks in Russia during the Russo-Ukrainian war
    • Ukrainian military forces launch airstrikes on several targets across Russia, hitting an oil terminal, an ammunition depot, and a drone launch site in Krasnodar. (AP)
  • Lieutenant general Fanil Sarvarov is killed by a car bomb in Moscow, Russia. The Security Service of Ukraine is being investigated for its role in the attack, which they have not taken responsibility for, with connections also drawn to the assassination of Igor Kirillov last year. (The Guardian)
• Turkey–Islamic State conflict, Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
  • Turkish intelligence agents capture a senior member of the Islamic State – Khorasan Province along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border. (AP)

• China–European Union relations
  • The Chinese commerce ministry imposes a provisional set of 42.7% tariffs on dairy products, including milk and cheese, imported from the European Union. (AP)
• The price of gold reaches an all-time high of US$4,383.76 per ounce, surpassing its previous peak of $4,381.52. (AFP via Barron's)

• At least 16 people are killed and 18 others are injured, including five critically, when a passenger bus loses control on a toll road, strikes a concrete barrier, and overturns in Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia. (AP)
• A Mexican Navy Beechcraft Super King Air plane carrying eight people, including a pediatric patient, crashes into a bay while on approach to Scholes International Airport in Galveston, Texas, United States. At least five people are killed, including a two-year-old child, while two others are rescued and another is reported missing. (Chron) (BNO News) (AP)
• Ten people are injured, including three seriously and the driver, when an individual drove into a crowd waiting to watch a parade in Nunspeet, Gelderland, Netherlands. (Nunspeet Huis aan Huis in Dutch) (AP)

• Nuclear power in Japan
  • The Niigata prefectural assembly approves the restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, the world's largest nuclear facility, nearly 15 years after Japan shut down its reactors following the 2011 Fukushima disaster. (Reuters)

• India–New Zealand relations
  • India and New Zealand finalize a free-trade agreement aiming to reduce most tariffs on bilateral trades, while New Zealand also pledges to invest US$20 billion in India's economy over the next 15 years. (DW)

• 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal
  • The high court of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, rules that former prime minister Najib Razak must remain in prison, holding that a purported royal addendum allowing house arrest lacks legal force because it was not approved by the pardons board, as required under the constitution. (Reuters)

• Mass media in Israel
  • The Israeli cabinet approves defense minister Israel Katz's proposal to close the Israeli Army Radio, one of the country's two state broadcasters, by March 1, 2026, citing dissatisfaction from soldiers. (Reuters)
• United States president Donald Trump reveals the development of the Trump Class USS Defiant, the first American battleship built since World War II. (BBC News) (USNI)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Israeli settler colonialism
  • The Israeli cabinet approves 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, despite such settlements being considered illegal under international law. (BBC News) (AP)

• Sugar industry in the Philippines
  • The Philippine agriculture department extends its import ban on sugar until December 2026. (The Rahnuma Daily)

• Libya–Pakistan relations
  • Pakistan agrees to sell military technology to the Libyan military for over US$4 billion, violating an arms embargo imposed by the United Nations on Libya. (Reuters)

• Kidnapping in Nigeria
  • Papiri kidnapping
    • Nigerian presidential spokesperson Ajuri Ngelale reports that all remaining 130 students and staff abducted in November from a Catholic school in Niger State have been released. (AFP via The Guardian)
  • Gunmen abduct 28 people after intercepting a vehicle traveling to a Maulud gathering in Bashar, Plateau State. (AFP via France 24)
• Nine people are killed and ten others are injured in a mass shooting when 12 gunmen open fire near a tavern in Bekkersdal, Gauteng, South Africa. (AFP via CBS News)

• 2025 Extremaduran regional election

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Operation Southern Spear
  • 2025 United States naval deployment in the Caribbean, United States–Venezuela relations
    • The United States Coast Guard intercepts an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela after previously seizing another last week. (Reuters) (BBC) (The Washington Post)
• US intervention in the Syrian civil war
  • Operation Hawkeye Strike
    • The United States and Jordan carry out airstrikes on 70 Islamic State targets at multiple locations in Syria, in retaliation for the December 2025 Palmyra attack. (BBC News)

• Seven elephants are killed and another is injured when a passenger train strikes a herd in the Hojai district of Assam, India. (DW) (Reuters)

• Arrest of Imran Khan
  • A Pakistani court sentences former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, to 17 years in prison after finding them guilty of corruption-related charges. (AP)
• Iran executes a man convicted of spying for Israeli intelligence agency Mossad in Urmia. (AP) (Iran Human Rights)

• Blue Origin NS-37
  • German engineer Michaela Benthaus becomes the first person in a wheelchair and the first with paraplegia to travel to space on a sub-orbital trip conducted by Blue Origin. (DW)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • At least six Palestinians are killed when an Israeli tank fires at a wedding hosted in a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City. (Al Jazeera)
• Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
  • Eight people are killed, including four attackers, and 15 others are injured in a suicide attack by unidentified militants on a military post in North Waziristan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. (AP) (Amu Television)

• Mining industry of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • The Democratic Republic of the Congo suspends artisanal copper and cobalt processing, ordering operators to halt activities and certify mineral origins while a new commission verifies traceability and legality to curb illegal exports. (Reuters)
• Restrictions on TikTok in the United States
  • Social media platform TikTok announces a deal to sell 80.1% of its United States-based assets to a consortium of companies, including Oracle, Silver Lake, MGX, and existing ByteDance investors, to avoid a ban in the US. (DW)
• Uganda restricts imports of Starlink satellite internet equipment by requiring military clearance for related devices. (Reuters)

• Russo-Ukrainian war, Ukraine–European Union relations
  • Foreign involvement in the Russo-Ukrainian war
    • The European Union agrees to loan €90 billion (US$105 billion) to Ukraine from its internal budget after failing to use frozen Russian assets. (The Washington Post) (Reuters)
• Immigration policy of the second Trump administration, 2025 Brown University shooting
  • The U.S. government suspends the Diversity Immigrant Visa scheme for green cards after the Brown University shooting suspect was revealed to be from Portugal. (BBC News)

• 2025 Bondi Beach shooting
  • Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese announces a nationwide gun buyback program, the largest since the aftermath of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, in response to the recent Bondi Beach shooting in Sydney. (AFP via France 24)
• 2025 Taipei stabbings
  • Three people are killed and five more injured in a mass stabbing near a subway station in Taipei, Taiwan. The perpetrator, who also threw smoke bombs at the train station, dies during the chase with police. (Reuters)
• Caning in Singapore
  • Singapore announces that scammers will face mandatory caning of up to 24 strokes from December 30 under changes to the criminal law passed by parliament in November. (AP)
• December 2025 Bangladesh violence
  • Protests and riots erupt across Bangladesh after the assassination of activist Osman Hadi by two members of the banned Awami League party. (Al Jazeera)
• Epstein Files Transparency Act
  • The U.S. Department of Justice releases a heavily redacted fraction of the Epstein files, potentially violating the law that determines their full release by December 19. The department intends to continue releasing remaining files over subsequent weeks. (AP) (The Guardian)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2025 Cambodia–Thailand conflict
  • Cambodia accuses Thailand of bombing Poipet on the border and denies the truce previously announced by United States president Donald Trump. (Al Jazeera)

• 2025 North Carolina Cessna Citation II crash
  • Seven people, including stock car racer Greg Biffle and his family, are killed after Biffle's Cessna Citation II jet crashes while landing at Statesville Regional Airport in Statesville, North Carolina, United States. (ABC News)

• Taiwan–United States relations
  • The United States approves a $11.1 billion arms sale to Taiwan, including medium-range ballistic missiles, drones, and howitzers, as the largest arms deal in the history of bilateral relations between the two countries. (DW)
• The United Nations General Assembly elects former Iraqi president Barham Salih as the next High Commissioner for Refugees, succeeding Filippo Grandi, whose term ends December 31. (Reuters)

• Mass shootings in the United States
  • 2025 Brown University shooting
    • A 48-year-old suspect of the mass shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, is found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside of a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire. Authorities are investigating whether the murder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno Loureiro is connected. (NBC News)
• Besançon poisonings
  • Frédéric Péchier, an anesthesiologist who was found guilty of poisoning 30 patients and killing twelve with anesthetic infusion bags in Besançon, Doubs, France, is sentenced to life in prison. (BBC News)
• Crime in Peru
  • Councilwoman Elena Rojas is assassinated and several others are injured, including at least four children, in a targeted mass shooting at a Christmas event in Chicama, Department of La Libertad, Peru. (BNO News)
• 2025 Mannheim car attack
  • The Mannheim Regional Court convicts Alexander Scheuermann, the perpetrator of a car attack in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany on March 3, of two counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder, and sentences him to life imprisonment at a psychiatric facility. (The Straits Times)
• Terrorism in Russia
  • A Russian military court sentences a Belarusian national to 22 years in prison for terrorism after convicting him of planting explosives on two freight trains in Buryatia in 2023, causing major damage and rail disruptions. (Reuters)